The invention relates to an automation device comprising a first functional unit, a second functional unit, a first network connection for connection to a first data network and a bus master unit for connecting a peripheral component.
Automation devices having on-board peripherals or peripherals which can be plugged in a modular manner are known. Here, peripherals comprise, for example, input/output subassemblies or additional sensor subassemblies. Input/output signals from the peripherals are processed by the automation device or the input/output signals are forwarded or connected to a superordinate computation unit. This connection is preferably effected using a first data network. The first data network comprises a primary bus system. Particularly, in automation technology, however, there are also applications in which only some of the peripherals are intended to be processed or pre-processed in the automation device itself. The rest of the peripherals are intended to be allocated to the superordinate computation unit (also called the host system). A primary bus device for connecting additional peripherals to the superordinate computation unit may be connected to the primary bus system. Automation devices which have implemented a slave connection through virtual modules for Profibus are known. This slave connection is essentially restricted to the useful data. A user wishing to parameterize the automation device for a particular industrial application must create two separate plans for this purpose, one for the slave to a host system and one for the actual automation device. It is also necessary to plan for coupling between the peripherals and the superordinate computation unit. The operations for accessing the peripherals by an application program must also be programmed and the data must be copied from or to virtual modules. The disadvantage of this is that a response time of the peripherals, which are controlled by the superordinate computation unit, is correspondingly long.